VOORHEES – Usually after back-to-back games, the Flyers don’t practice.

Usually, the players are rewarded with a day off in a condensed year.

Then again, usually the Flyers don’t lose back-to-back games.

So Friday they practiced and then cued up the tape like they do after every game. Recently the footage has looked similar, especially when the Flyers are in their defensive end.

If the Flyers are going to get their first win of the week against Boston today, they’ll have to learn how to exit their own zone.

“We struggle on the breakouts and the passing and execution,” defenseman Mark Streit said. “Maybe you want to try too much. You think you go out there and you want to do a little extra instead of keeping it simple.”

Recently, the only thing that has looked simple is keeping the Flyers pinned in their own zone. The New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets have all done it this week by applying pressure on defensemen when they have the puck, or forcing backchecking forwards to cough up the puck when they try to break into the neutral zone.

“When you manage the puck and you control what you do with the puck instead of hope plays and trying to chip it out and stuff like that, there’s a big difference in the quality of your breakouts and how you’re gonna start your forecheck,” fellow blueliner Braydon Coburn said.

It’s not just the defense’s fault that this has been happening. There’s plenty of blame to go around.

“I think the forwards need to get back quicker and the D need to do more with each other, including the goalie,” coach Craig Berube said. “Breaking the puck out of your end, you’ve got to do things together and you have to do things quick.”

Even when the Flyers have gotten the puck recently, they haven’t been making good decisions. A lot of could-be breakout passes recently have become turnovers. All in all, the Flyers have been a mess in their own zone and are trying to get the execution back to the point it was in December, when they went 8-4-1.

“You need support and then slowly get the confidence and the good feeling back and then all the pretty plays happen,” Streit said. “You can’t start the pretty play first. You’ve got to go back to the basics.”

The good news, the Flyers say, is that these mistakes are easily correctable.

“Absolutely. We’ve got the personnel to do it,” Coburn said. “We’ve got guys that can move the puck out of the zone. We have forwards that can control the puck once they get it and make the right decisions and vice versa — use the D and the centermen in the proper support position and that is easily correctable.”

While the Flyers figure it out on the ice, Berube’s frustration is mounting. There are only so many changes he can make. One of them may come today if he decides to put Erik Gustafsson in the lineup. The 25-year-old Swede has been healthy for about a week, recovered from a left knee sprain. Otherwise, Berube is still waiting for the problems to be rectified.

“It’s up to the players to correct them,” the coach said. “They know what’s going on. They say all the right things in the papers. You’ve got to work at it. We’ve got to work together. When we’re on the ice, you’ve got to work together as five-man units and we’ve got to play like a team (Saturday).”

Toughest stretch

of the season?

The next two weeks for the Flyers are a perfect storm of teams that seem to have it figured out.

Today’s opponent, the Boston Bruins, leads the Atlantic Division. Then it’s the Detroit Red Wings, who have given the Flyers trouble, and a trip to California. The Anaheim Ducks are the best team in the NHL and are 21-1-2 at home. The L.A. Kings and San Jose Sharks are no picnic either.

“There’s never a good time for a stretch like that,” Streit said. “It’s a big challenge for us. We have a great team, but we didn’t play well lately. Maybe it’s good for us. Maybe we need that challenge as a team, as a group.”

Is it the toughest stretch of the season? Especially seeing as how two more Western Conference teams come into town before the Olympic break?

“I think so,” captain Claude Giroux said. “A lot of games in not a lot of nights. They’re really good teams, we’re playing. We have to take that as a challenge. We can’t be scared. We can’t be, ‘Oh no, look who we’re playing.’ We’ve got to have a good attitude. It’s a chance for us to work on our game.”

Rinaldo (ankle) coming along

Zac Rinaldo skated for the fourth time Friday since he suffered a high ankle sprain. The original diagnosis was six weeks, but he may be ahead of schedule.

“I hate missing time so I’m gonna do everything I can, just obey the doctor’s rules,” said Rinaldo, who has two points and 101 penalty minutes in 44 games. “If I do that, I’ll be good to go in no time.”